Negative Calorie Foods: Myth or Reality? | [Your Brand Name]

Question
Have you ever heard of negative calorie foods? There are some books and websites that claim that if you eat something very low in calores, you lose the calories you ate and maybe more in the digestive process, so you lost more calories than you gained eating this particular food. Is this true? I try to keep my calorie intake the same everyday, plus or minus 100 calories or so. But i love apples and eat up to 5 a day and want to eat them even if i'm over my calorie intake and sometimes i do, but apples are on the negative calorie food list so if the whole negative calorie thing is true i'll be able to sleep easier at night knowing its okay that i went over my limit with a negative calorie food, which wouldn't really count as going over. I hope that makes sense. So is the whole negative calorie thing true, or is it just a whole scam to make people feel better and buy their books to make money? Thanks.

Answer
Hello Eden,
From what I have read on "negative calorie foods" it is not something that has been scientifically proven.  It is only an assumption.  All foods have calories and what you need to look at is calories on a whole, not for each individual food.  You need to know what your estimated BMR is or how many calories your body burns at rest (which includes digestion) and than add to that your daily activity including exercise to see how many calories your body burns each day.  Than you need to compare that to how many calories you eat each day.  It really doesn't figure by individual foods but by calories on a whole.  When your calorie needs are estimated, calories used for digestion are included.

The best idea is to eat a healthy well-balanced diet each day and to eat a VARIETY of foods.  ALL foods have varying degrees of nutrients so the more variety you get the better your nutritional intake.  As I stated earlier the "negative calorie food" theory is only that, a "theory".  It is nothing that has been proven and I tend to believe it is not true.  If you eat 5 apples per day, that is about 300 calories from apples and I can't believe that eating apples or any other food does not contribute to any caloric intake.  If I were you I would count apples as part of your daily caloric intake.  If you start to think about it there are probably a lot of foods on the list so if you went crazy and ate thousands of calories of these foods daily I doubt you would actually LOSE weight if you were NOT watching your total caloric intake.  My feeling after asking other RD's and reading a bit on it is that it is a myth.  Stick to watching your portion sizes, eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly (with doctors OK).  That is the best way to lose and/or maintain weight! Remember, everything in moderation!!

Thanks,
Kim Tessmer, RD LD
www.Nutrifocus.net